Elementary Religious Education
Elementary Religious Education for Grades 1 - 5
Grades 1 & 2 (Sacramental Preparation)
Tuesdays from 3:45 pm - 5:00 pm
-- See File Attachments Below for Calendar of Classes & Enrollment Forms --
For more information, please call Jackie at the rectory office (626) 796-0432, ext 114.
WELCOME & GENERAL INFORMATION
We are all very excited to begin a new year together learning about God and our beautiful Catholic faith. We look forward to joining with you, as parents, in contributing to your child’s knowledge of God and the Church. In order to have a firm understanding of the mission of our program, please read the information below.
Archdiocesan Elementary Religious Education Program Statement:
Catechesis during childhood depends largely on the child’s experience in his or her relationship with others. The child’s immediate environment, normally the home, remains the child’s main experience of this lived relationship to God. But also, the support of a larger community becomes highly important to formation in faith and its absence becomes a serious matter. Catechesis seeks to help children make an increasingly personal response to God’s word and gifts. Catechesis approaches young persons with reverence and aids them in discovering and developing their unique, God-given gifts with the help of the Gospel. (National Catechetical Directory, #178)
Saints Felicitas & Perpetua Religious Education Program strives to assist each child to:
- Nurture their personal sense of spirituality.
- Trust in our God that is loving and caring.
- Look for and respect the presence of God in them, in others, and in the world around them.
- Experience joy and ease in traditional and spontaneous prayer.
- Develop a strong familiarity and love for the Scripture as God speaking to us.
- Learn and understand the major teachings of our Catholic faith.
- Grow in their understanding and appreciation of the Mass and their sense of belonging to the worshiping community.
- Share the Good News of Scripture and our Catholic faith with those around them.
General Information
- Yearly Enrollment Requirements and Fees
- In order to be eligible for enrollment each family must fall into one of the following categories:
- The family may be registered at the rectory office and be an active and supporting family in the parish. All registered families are asked to use the weekly envelopes to support parish life.
- A family may be registered at another parish and attend our program due to a scheduling conflict.
- The fee of $100.00 per child helps to defray the costs of the program (student insurance, textbooks, and all supplies and materials used in class).
- An additional fee of $50.00 per child is charged for children in the 2nd grade/Sacramental class.
- In order to be eligible for enrollment each family must fall into one of the following categories:
- Set Curriculum: The curriculum used is the Blest Are We Series by Silver Burdett Ginn Religion. Children experience a “spiral” approach to learning our Catholic faith as the four pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church—Belief, Worship/Liturgy, Morality and Prayer—are taught and developed on every grade level every year. This curriculum has been evaluated by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and has been approved and recommended for use in religious programs in this Archdiocese.
- Catechists (Teachers): The catechists are volunteers who are willing to spend time sharing their faith with the children of the parish. Most of them have many years of experience as catechists. All are competently prepared to teach the children.
- Student Insurance: Children are insured in case of injury while coming to, attending or going home from religious education class. The insurance fee is included in the enrollment fee.
- Emergency and Earthquake Procedures
- In the event of an earthquake or other emergency, everyone, when it is safe, will evacuate the school building according to the emergency plan and assemble in the parking lot. No one will be allowed to leave the campus until staff members are ready to release and sign-out the students.
- In any emergency situation, children will be released only to adults whose names are listed on the enrollment form.
Parent Role and Responsibilities
Parents are the first and foremost catechists of their children. This means that you are primarily responsible for the faith formation of your child. You have a very important role in your child’s success in the parish program. To ensure your child understands our Catholic faith, we need your cooperation in the following duties:
Mass Attendance: Attendance at Mass is considered a very high priority for your child to understand the centrality of the Holy Eucharist in our lives as Catholics. The example of public worship within our faith community is essential for your child to understand the teachings in the classroom.
Prayer: Your child needs to learn our traditional Catholic prayers at home. Teaching your child to pray enables the catechist to teach the curriculum required by the U.S. Catholic Bishops. (See attached prayer sheet.)
Support: It is important that you take an active participation in your child’s faith formation and help them realize how important their religious education classes are.
Student Responsibilities and Expectations
- Students are required to cooperate and behave in ways that encourage living as children of God and treating each other with respect, courtesy and kindness.
- Students are required to learn our Catholic traditional prayers: Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Act of Contrition. See attached prayer sheet.
- Students are required to complete their assignments and actively participate in class.
- Students are required to make a genuine effort to attend Sunday Mass weekly and participate with responses, singing and prayer.
- Students are required to observe classroom and yard rules.
Due to Virtual Learning the follow does not apply at this time.
Classroom and Yard Rules
For your child’s safety and the safety of all the children in our program we have rules that must be strictly followed by all the children. Please read these and go over them with your child.
- Students may not leave the school grounds at anytime during Religious Education classes without written permission from parents.
- Students are expected to dress properly when attending Religious Education classes.
- Students are not allowed in the classroom at any time without the teacher’s presence.
- Gum chewing, candy, sunflower seeds, etc. are not acceptable in the classroom or on the school grounds at any time. Please see that your child has a snack before coming to class. There is no eating in the classrooms.
- Cell phones, toys, computer games, radios, etc. are not allowed in the classroom. Please do not bring them to class.
- Please keep off all banisters, walls and tables both inside and outside the school.
- All students are to assist in keeping the grounds and facilities clean. Drinking fountains, play equipment and bathrooms are to be used with safety and cleanliness in mind.
- Children are not permitted to run on the school grounds or in the school building. Fighting or “play-fighting” is never allowed.
- There is to be no BIKE-RIDING or SKATEBOARD-RIDING on the church or school grounds. Students must dismount their bikes or skateboards when leaving the public sidewalk and walk onto the school grounds.
- Please use the walking lanes marked on either side of the rectory.
- Cross through traffic lanes only at the clearly marked crosswalk near the rectory.
Safety For All
For the safety of all the Religious Education children and parents, please note these rules, which have been worked out in consultation with the San Marino Police Department.
- Students should not be dropped off or picked up on Huntington Drive because of the busy and hazardous traffic there. It is also extremely dangerous to drop off or pick up students on the west side (“across the street”) of Palomar, or to “double park” on the east side of Palomar.
- There is absolutely no parking in the coned-off area next to the school building
- Automobile traffic on our parish grounds is “one way”. There are two exit lanes in the south driveway. Please read thoroughly through the TRAFFIC SAFETY DIAGRAM provided.
- Orange cones and tall orange markers are arranged on the grounds to permit “drive-thru” lanes in the center, as well as a “drop-off” and “pick-up” lane near the tall orange markers. Between the markers and the school building is a “pedestrian safety area.” Another pedestrian safety area is inside the cones near the patio/lunch-table area.
- Everyone (adults and students) is to cross from one pedestrian safety area to the other only at the crosswalk. It is dangerous and therefore forbidden to cross the traffic lanes at any other point. The only exception would be to walk immediately in front of the car a student has just gotten out of.
- Please study the diagram on the reverse side of this page. Whether you are walking or driving, kindly observe the above practices for your own safety, the safety of your children and safety of others.